Comments on Cloaca No. 5 Bionic Bowel, At Last
This art project has a somewhat more serious side; some people with gastric, colon or other cancers could use a bionic replacement. (Read
the complete story)

"It's a bit large though, I doubt anyone will be using this one inside their guts should their biological parts fail :)"
(Miniaturization 2/4/2009 10:50:21 PM)

"That's great, it turns it into fecal matter. But does it derive any energy from it? If it does not, its a compost device, not a bionic bowel. If this device is entirely incapable of replacing your digestive tract, then it's more of a side show than science. The fact that it is large doesn't matter. Anything that works can and will be slimmed down over time. If it doesn't work, it doesn't belong here."
(Brandon 2/5/2009 9:03:11 AM)

"Brandon - my understanding is that its different parts mimic the action of the stomach, colon, etc. Some amount of essential nutrients are processed out of the food at each step. Obviously, as I state in the article, it is an art project and not a serious scientific research platform. However, you've got to start somewhere, and this device appears to actually mimic some of the basic functions of the gut."
(Bill Christensen 2/5/2009 9:33:52 AM)

"Here is a comment from a physician who was apprised of the artificial stomach project.
"The stomach is an extraordinarily complex organ, so you cannot create a model that will undertake all of these functions," said Dr. Stephen Bloom, head of metabolic medicine at Imperial College in London."
(From High-tech box simulates human digestion — it even vomits.)"
(Bill Christensen 2/5/2009 9:46:36 AM)

"Eh, I still wouldn't call it a Bowel, but that's just me. I still think its a neat composter. Now what would be cool is if the 'fecal matter' is nutrient rich and can be used as a fertilizer. I wonder how long it takes to do its job. If it does it in an hour or less, people could drop their waste food scraps in there and make little bricks that they can drop in their household plants or gardens. That would be really neat. Take all the work and space out of compost heaps."
(Brandon 2/5/2009 10:29:51 AM)

"Zac - Shhh! DARPA might be listening... I note with some concern that many of the earlier attempts at a similar robot, like the SlugBot and EcoBot, are predatory flesh-eaters."
(Bill Christensen 2/5/2009 1:18:10 PM)

"My only comment is I don't think I've ever seen eight now nine) comments on a Technovelgy posting before now. It would have to be the bionic "poo machine"..."
(AJ Dual 2/5/2009 8:07:23 PM)

"AJ - a quick Googling reveals that I have many posts with dozens of comments. Google the phrase '"Comment/Join discussion (21)" site:technovelgy.com' and substitute numbers for the '21'. However, the one that probably takes the cake has 165 comments. I tried for an intellectual approach, but the commenters had other ideas (I probably scraped off another hundred). And then there were the posts that were Slashdotted, Stumbledupon, Redditted, etc."
(Bill Christensen 2/5/2009 8:42:57 PM)